Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

When tragedy occurs, four friends come together in a bittersweet reunion and are forced to confront the falsehoods and also embrace the truth in their lives.

On college graduation day, Grace and her friends  Liz, Tess, and Lovey  agreed to keep a journal that would make the rounds. They vowed to always be truthful.

For three decades, the journal has been circulating, carrying stories of Liz's missions against social injustices, Tess's successful career and home life, and Lovey's fairy-tale marriage to a former pro football player-turned-executive.

As for Grace, she never intends to deceive her seemingly content friends. She can't bear to admit how her life has spiraled downward and the dismal realities she faces everyday. So at first, she simply embellishes the truth, omitting a few details from her entries. But over the years, one exaggeration leads to another until most of the life she has written is fiction.

Now Grace is extremely ill. Alone and desolate with nothing to lose, she reaches out to her friends. Reunited, they help her face the battle of her life while embarking on the most important struggle of their own lives  the fight for honesty and friendship.

Review

"Stokes is a competent writer who knows how to craft a well-paced story." Publishers Weekly

Review

"With abiding warmth and moving sensitivity, Stokes crafts an inspiring tribute to the power of true friendship." Booklist

Review

"A beautiful novel of dreams gone awry, truths forsaken, and the blessings and redemptive power of women's friendships. The dialogue is fast-paced, intelligent, and heartwrenchingly honest. The writing is clear and concise and speaks to the truths of our connection to the universe and to who we really are." Joan Medlicott, author of The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love and The Spirit of Covington

Review

"A lackluster addition to the shelf of follow-the-friends novels....Perhaps with a fresher approach and more judicious editing, her true ability to capture domestic moods will have a better chance to shine." Cleveland Plain Dealer

Synopsis

For the last thirty years, Grace has been living a lie; now it's about to catch up with her. On college graduation day, she and her friends agreed to keep a journal which would make the rounds for the next thirty years.

In the journal, Liz is committed to bettering the world. Tess seems content as a professor, wife, and mother. Amanda enjoys married life with her college boyfriend, a former Minnesota Viking-turned-executive. As for Grace, she never intended to deceive her friends. At first, she simply embellished the truth and omitted a few details from her entries. However, one exaggeration led to another until most of the life she had written was fiction.

Now she is extremely ill. Reunited, her friends help Grace face the most important battle of her life while embarking on the most important struggle of their own lives  the fight for honesty and friendship.

About the Author

Penelope J. Stokes is the author of nine novels, including The Blue Bottle Club. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Reading Group Guide

1. Circle of Grace is a novel about friendship, about the power of honesty and vulnerability. And yet absolute honesty is a rare commodity. How and why do we put up fronts and pretenses? Are those pretenses ever justifiable?

2. Although Grace's lies are the most significant, in what ways and for what reasons does each of the women lie in the circle journal?

3. Each of the main characters experiences significant failure in her life. What are the results of those failures? What good ultimately comes out of the experience?

4. A recurring theme in Circle of Grace centers on the question: What is truth? How would you answer this question? Could you agree with the definition the girls came up with for their Philosophy class? How might you refine, focus, or extend their definition of truth?

5. Grace goes through a serious crisis of confidence when she comes to grips with the truth about her father, whom she adored. Why then does she fall for Michael Forrester, who is so much like her father, and why is she unable to see the similarities until it is too late? What is the significance of Graces recurring dreams?

6. When the girls first meet in college, they seem to be very different. What draws them together then? And what connects them after 30 years?

7. Tess endures a crushing blow with the failure of her first novel and quits writing for seven years. What is the revelation that turns her creative life around, and how does that vision of creativity reflect the restorations that take place in her friends lives as well?

8. When Grace finally reunites with her friends, she comes to believe that Tesss daughter Claire is the little girl she once gave up for adoption. Why is this belief important to Grace? How does Claire become a catalyst for Graces ultimate acceptance of herself?

9. How does each of the main characters grow and change throughout the course of the story? Which of the women do you identify with the most, and why?

10. Who in your life has been a circle of grace for you?

When tragedy occurs, four friends come together in a bittersweet reunion and are forced to confront the falsehoods and also embrace the truth in their lives.

On college graduation day, Grace and her friends—Liz, Tess, and Lovey—agreed to keep a journal that would make the rounds. They vowed to always be truthful.

For three decades, the journal has been circulating, carrying stories of Liz’s missions against social injustices, Tess’s successful career and home life, and Lovey’s fairy-tale marriage to a former pro football player-turned-executive.

As for Grace, she never intends to deceive her seemingly content friends. She can’t bear to admit how her life has spiraled downward and the dismal realities she faces everyday. So at first, she simply embellishes the truth, omitting a few details from her entries. But over the years, one exaggeration leads to another until most of the life she has written is fiction.

Now Grace is extremely ill. Alone and desolate with nothing to lose, she reaches out to her friends. Reunited, they help her face the battle of her life while embarking on the most important struggle of their own lives—the fight for honesty and friendship.

1. Circle of Grace is a novel about friendship, about the power of honesty and vulnerability. And yet absolute honesty is a rare commodity. How and why do we put up fronts and pretenses? Are those pretenses ever justifiable?

2. Although Grace's lies are the most significant, in what ways and for what reasons does each of the women lie in the circle journal?

3. Each of the main characters experiences significant failure in her life. What are the results of those failures? What good ultimately comes out of the experience?

4. A recurring theme in Circle of Grace centers on the question: “What is truth?” How would you answer this question? Could you agree with the definition the girls came up with for their Philosophy class? How might you refine, focus, or extend their definition of truth?

5. Grace goes through a serious crisis of confidence when she comes to grips with the truth about her father, whom she adored. Why then does she fall for Michael Forrester, who is so much like her father, and why is she unable to see the similarities until it is too late? What is the significance of Grace’s recurring dreams?

6. When the girls first meet in college, they seem to be very different. What draws them together then? And what connects them after 30 years?

7. Tess endures a crushing blow with the failure of her first novel and quits writing for seven years. What is the revelation that turns her creative life around, and how does that vision of creativity reflect the restorations that take place in her friends’ lives as well?

8. When Grace finally reunites with her friends, she comes to believe that Tess’s daughter Claire is the little girl she once gave up for adoption. Why is this belief important to Grace? How does Claire become a catalyst for Grace’s ultimate acceptance of herself?

9. How does each of the main characters grow and change throughout the course of the story? Which of the women do you identify with the most, and why?

10. Who in your life has been a circle of grace for you?

1. Circle of Grace is a novel about friendship, about the power of honesty and vulnerability. And yet absolute honesty is a rare commodity. How and why do we put up fronts and pretenses? Are those pretenses ever justifiable?

2. Although Grace's lies are the most significant, in what ways and for what reasons does each of the women lie in the circle journal?

3. Each of the main characters experiences significant failure in her life. What are the results of those failures? What good ultimately comes out of the experience?

4. A recurring theme in Circle of Grace centers on the question: “What is truth?” How would you answer this question? Could you agree with the definition the girls came up with for their Philosophy class? How might you refine, focus, or extend their definition of truth?

5. Grace goes through a serious crisis of confidence when she comes to grips with the truth about her father, whom she adored. Why then does she fall for Michael Forrester, who is so much like her father, and why is she unable to see the similarities until it is too late? What is the significance of Graces recurring dreams?

6. When the girls first meet in college, they seem to be very different. What draws them together then? And what connects them after 30 years?

7. Tess endures a crushing blow with the failure of her first novel and quits writing for seven years. What is the revelation that turns her creative life around, and how does that vision of creativity reflect the restorations that take place in her friends lives as well?

8. When Grace finally reunites with her friends, she comes to believe that Tesss daughter Claire is the little girl she once gave up for adoption. Why is this belief important to Grace? How does Claire become a catalyst for Graces ultimate acceptance of herself?

9. How does each of the main characters grow and change throughout the course of the story? Which of the women do you identify with the most, and why?

10. Who in your life has been a circle of grace for you?

Author Q&A

Are any of these characters based on your own life?

All writers draw from their own experience for the details that enliven and enrich a work of fiction. The house the girls rented, for example, was based on a small house I once owned in southern Minnesota, and the local Asheville haunts described in the book--the Grove Park Inn and Spa, the downtown locales--are places I know well. Lizs involvement in social causes in the sixties reflect some of my own past experiences, and Tesss creative struggles and victories are drawn from my own life as a writer.

In that sense, all of the characters contain elements of my personal experience, and yet none of them is based on my life. Although fiction is drawn from reality, a good writer never lets reality get in the way of a good story. What we call real life is pretty dull stuff sometimes; what goes on inside my head is much more interesting.

Do you always know where your books are going when you start, or are you sometimes surprised?

Im always surprised. Fiction has a life of its own. The characters spring from the imagination and begin to live, and the writer does not always have control over what they do or who they become. Flannery OConnor described her writing process as finding interesting characters and then following them around to see what happens. This all sounds very mystical to the non-writer, and yet it rings true to those of us who have entire worlds of people walking around and talking inside our heads.

When I begin a new project, I usually have an idea of where the story begins, and how it might end. But how the story gets from point A to point Z is always a mystery and an adventure. I dont create chapter-by-chapter outlines, because I find that over-planning limits the possibilities for character development and plot movement. If I discover the story along with my characters, the work has more immediacy and more passion.

What's next for you as a novelist?

Im currently working on a novel called Delta Belles--the story of five young women who form an all-girl folk band in the sixties. One of the girls, Delta Fox, signs her friends up for a college talent show as a practical joke, but the power of the music takes them places they never expected to go.

After Delta Belles, who knows? I have dozens of novels in various stages of development, all simmering on the back burner of my subconscious. And new ideas keep coming all the time. When readers ask if I ever run out of ideas, I tell them that I wont live long enough to write all the novels I have planned. So many books, so little time. . .

Where can I find out more?

Visit my website, www.penelopejstokes.com, for information about me and my writing. You can read interviews and my bio, purchase books, post a comment or two on my guest book, get updates on new releases--and see some wonderful photos of the Blue Ridge Mountains.